1. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada • www.smu.ca
Teaching
Learning&
In this issue:
• International Student Success
INNOVATIONfund Projects
• Upcoming Regional Conferences
• Staging a Death Fair
Volume 25, Number 1, Fall 2014
The Story
Everyone says
that if you want
to improve your
English, you
have to get out
there and make
new friends with
native speakers.
This is easier said than done. Many
students were attending school events
and joining student societies, but the
locals’ conversations were often too
complicated or their speech was too
fast. Due to the cultural and language
barriers, students tend to stick with
people who speak the same language,
which does not help them integrate into
the Canadian community. Although
SMU has the ESL Drop-in Center,
students only talk with the instructor
one-on-one, asking questions. They do
not have many opportunities to converse
with Canadian students outside of
their class time. Even then, in group
discussions, many students feel isolated.
They are afraid to make mistakes.
Fortunately, the International
Student Success INNOVATIONfund
made it possible to create a project called
Speak Up!
The Idea
Speak Up! is a series of workshops
designed to end the division on our
campus by encouraging the international
students to communicate, sharing their
ideas and bringing them together with
Canadian students. The focus of Speak
Up! is two-sided. Predominantly, we
hope to help new international students
gain confidence in speaking English, in
making friends and living in Canada.
We believe that if international students
feel accepted as a valuable member
of the community, they will have the
confidence to become more productive,
positive and involved students.
This serves to benefit not only our
international student body, but the wider
community as well. Additionally, Speak
Up! functions as a venue for Canadian
students to make friends from other
cultures and improve their leadership
and communication skills.
The Workshops
Last year, we held nine workshops
and four off-campus activities. Each
workshop was different, but most of
them followed the same format: the
workshop started with small icebreaker
games and then moved on to a 10- 20
minute presentation by the speaker.
Later, we would have either teamwork
exercises, or a group discussion. After
continued on page 2
Speak Up!
Claire Hou, Bachelor of Commerce student
INNOVATION is
a Moving Force
at Saint Mary’s
University
The INNOVATIONfund was
established by the International
Student Success Committee
in 2013 to encourage faculty,
staff, and students to develop
innovative services, activities,
teaching, and research to improve
the participation, experience and
outcomes for all students, with a
particular focus on international
students and intercultural
engagement. The recipients
represent a cross-section of Saint
Mary’s faculty, students, and staff.
In April 2014, funding
recipients were invited to
present their projects in a series
of 5-minute presentations. The
result was an exciting look at
11 different initiatives, each
inspired by a desire to improve
the university experience for all
members of the SMU community,
both international and domestic.
The following articles provide
a look at four of the 2013-14
INNOVATIONfund projects.

2. 2 T&L at Saint Mary’s
a short pizza break, one student in
each group would present their group’s
conclusions to practise their presentation
skills and become more confident
speaking in public. The workshops focus
on fun and valuable topics. For example,
in the Entrepreneurship Workshop,
we split our participants into small
teams of International and Canadian
participants. Then Enactus volunteers
led everyone in a competition to build
a tower with the best height-to-cost
ratio using various household objects as
building materials.
Our members reported feeling more
engaged and comfortable in group
meetings and making new friends
through our workshops. We are proud
to be building intercultural friendships
at SMU and developing students’
interpersonal and leadership skills.
The Outcomes
For two semesters, the project has
been successful. Thanks to the Enactus
society and Speak Up! team, we had
40-80 attendees each time and the
relationships formed are still being built
upon. Our workshops attracted students
from different departments, and even
students from Dalhousie and other
language schools. Our members reported
feeling more engaged and comfortable
in group meetings and making new
friends through our
workshops. We are
proud to be building
intercultural friendships
at SMU and developing
students’ interpersonal
and leadership skills.
The Future
We will continue the
Speak Up! biweekly
workshops starting in
September 2014, to build
good will and unity, not
just on campus, but in
the community surrounding the school.
We plan to do this by inviting faculty,
professors, and people living in the
south end of Halifax to come join in
our workshops. One of our future goals
is to engage students from Dartmouth
High School to help coordinate our
workshops.
Invitation
“Speak Up! Saint Mary’s” Facebook page
always posts workshop information and
the details of our previous workshops.
“Speak Up! Members” is a closed
Facebook group, but if you are interested
in helping us organize the workshops
please like our page and send a request to
join our group.
Or you can put your idea, or advice,
about a topic on our Facebook page.
Also, if you want to receive our reminder
email about workshops, please contact
Claire Hou at jingyihou915@gmail.com.
We welcome all students, faculty and
staff to join our workshops.
Speak Up!… continued from cover
Teaching and Learning at
Saint Mary’s
A forum on teaching and learning sponsored
by the Senate Committee on Learning and
Teaching and edited and produced by the Centre
for Academic and Instructional Development.
Articles and responses by faculty, students and
staff are welcome.
Senate Committee on Learning &
Teaching Members 2014/15
Faculty Representatives:
Alec Soucy, Arts
Valerie Creelman, Commerce
Maryanne Fisher, Science
Anne-Marie Dalton, Graduate Studies
Senate Representative:
Veronica Stinson, Psychology
Patrick Power Library: Heather Sanderson, Chair
Continuing Education: Stefani Woods
Part-Time Faculty Rep: Howard Donohoe, Geology
Part-Time Student Rep: TBA
SMUSA Rep: James Patriquin
Members-At-Large:
Roxanne Richardson, Environmental Studies
Jason Grek-Martin, Geography
Claudia De Fuentes, Management
Mark Barr, English
Susan Joudrey, Acting Director
Centre for Academic and Instructional Development
Mary Kendall Brooks
Secretary to the Committee
Editor: Susan Joudrey, Acting Director, CAID
Design / Layout: Leigh McGlone / Grant Tomchuk
The opinions expressed in this publication are
those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect
the views of the editor or the Senate Committee
on Learning and Teaching. The editor reserves the
right not to publish a submission.

3. Volume 25, Number 1, Fall 2014 3
The importance of English language
proficiency to International Student
success is well documented (Andrade,
2006; Xu, 1991), identified as a key
factor by both professors and students
(Li, Chen, & Duanmu, 2010; Phakitit
& Li, 2011). The necessity of academic
communication skills is amplified in a
required communications course like
ours (COMM 2293), in which 80%
of the final grade is based on students’
writing, both in written assignments and
on the mid-term exam. Using a process-
based approach to writing in our own
classes, one that guides students through
their assignments from idea generation
to draft to finished product, we were
interested in learning more about
what aspects of the academic writing
process students, both domestic and
international, find the most challenging.
With funding granted through Saint
Mary’s 2013-14 international Student
Success INNOVATIONfund, we
designed a research project to provide
our undergraduate domestic and
international students within the Sobey
School of Business the opportunity
to reflect on, assess, and share their
experiences with academic writing. For
our study, we applied a mixed methods
approach, using a combination of survey
and focus groups. During the Winter
2014 semester, 208 undergraduate
students were invited to complete a
survey on academic writing. The purpose
of the survey was to discover which
particular aspects of writing assignments
and exams students themselves report
to be the most challenging, and which
resources they find most helpful. We also
wanted to see if significant differences
exist between our international and
Canadian students, in their experience
with academic writing. The respondents,
111 international and 97 domestic
students, were all in a second-year
Business Communications course.
For the survey, we asked students to
rate, using a five-point scale, the level
of difficulty they experienced with
specific components of assignment
and exam writing, such as “finding
research sources,” “avoiding plagiarism,”
“writing short answer questions on
exams,” “understanding questions and
instructions,” and “organizing ideas.”
As an important part of the
student population on our
campus and on university
campuses across Canada,
international students tend to
be described and treated as a
homogeneous group, who will
benefit from one instructional
approach when, in fact, their
needs as people and as learners
are as diverse as the cultures
they represent.
We also asked students to rate how
difficult they found in-class writing
activities like note-taking from lectures
and on-the-spot writing tasks. At Saint
Mary’s our students have access to a
variety of on-campus resources to help
them prepare their written assignments,
from their professors to the services
provided at the Writing Centre and
Library. To discover what on-campus
resources students consulted, our survey
also invited students to identify the
resources they use and the frequency
with which they access them. Such
information can prove invaluable in
gauging where to allocate university
resources and which services to develop
further.
As educators committed to
facilitating students’ learning, we also
wanted to pinpoint, for ourselves and
for our colleagues, 1) where to direct our
focus when teaching students various
aspects of the writing process and 2)
what teaching practices we might adopt
to enhance students’ understanding and
application of course content. As an
important part of the student population
on our campus and on university
campuses across Canada, international
students tend to be described and treated
as a homogeneous group, who will
benefit from one instructional approach
when, in fact, their needs as people and
as learners are as diverse as the cultures
they represent. This fall, we look forward
to presenting our research findings at the
Academic Writing and English Language
Learners Conference taking place at
Saint Mary’s October 3-4. Here we will
showcase how research projects like ours
can inform pedagogical practice and
offer ways instructors can adapt their
In Their Own Voice: International Students’
Perspectives on Academic Writing
Dr. Valerie Creelman and Dr. Karen Grandy, Department of Marketing
Want to Try Teaching With Tech?
New Tools Available to Try Out
The Senate Committee on Learning and Teaching
at Saint Mary’s has purchased a video camera,
a tripod, and two tablets—an Apple iPad air
and a Samsung galaxy mini—all of which are
available for faculty and instructors to test in their
classrooms. The new tech equipment can be
borrowed from the CAT lab located in AT 107. If
you are interested in learning more about how to use these devices in class,
Jane Magrath, the part-time CAID Educational Development Associate,
Technology, would be happy to share her knowledge and ideas with you.
You can reach Jane at 902-496-8242, or jane.magrath@smu.ca.
continued on page 4

4. 4 T&L at Saint Mary’s
teaching practices to better accommodate
the learning needs of our diverse student
audiences as they develop their academic
writing skills. Conferences like this
one create a much-needed forum for
discussing and understanding our
students’ needs and helping them to
reach their individual academic success.
Speaking of success, we could not
end this description of our project
without thanking the students who
participated in our project and the
following undergraduate and graduate
students who collaborated with us at
various stages of this initiative, from
survey administration to data analysis.
This talented group of people (listed
alphabetically) include Daniel Code-
McNeil (BComm Student, Sobey School
of Business), Kyler Crawford (MBA
Student, Sobey School of Business),
Kumar Raghav (MBA Student, Sobey
School of Business), Alejandro Aristi
Suárez (MBA Student, Sobey School
of Business), and Jennifer Wong (PhD
Candidate, Department of Psychology).
An especial thank you to Alejandro and
Jennifer for the work they did facilitating
our focus group sessions and transcribing
the interviews.
References:
Andrade, M. S. (2006). International students
in English-speaking universities: Adjustment
factors. Journal of Research in International
Education 5 (2), 131-154.
Li, G., Chen, W., & Duanmu, J. (2010)
Determinants of international students’
academic performance: A comparison between
Chinese and other international students.
Journal of Studies in International Education
14(4), 389-405.
Phakiti, A., & Li, L. (2011). General academic
difficulties and reading and writing difficulties
among Asian ESL postgraduate students in
TESOL at an Australian university. RELC
Journal.
42, 227-264.
Xu, M. (1991). The impact of English-language
proficiency on international graduate students’
perceived academic difficulty. Research in
Higher Education 32(5), 557-70.
Welcome to my Classroom—
Sharing our Practices in Teaching
Friday, November 28th, 2014
The university is established on a
tradition of supporting the exchange
of ideas, but we rarely have the
opportunity to discuss what we’re
doing in our classrooms to facilitate
that exchange and foster learning.
Saint Mary’s professors are using
valuable teaching techniques and
we want to learn more about your
classroom innovations!
In this spirit, CAID is hosting a teaching and learning colloquium the
morning of Friday, November 28th, 2014.
This is a chance for you to share:
• your methods for fostering student learning and success,
• your strategies for active and experiential learning,
• your creative uses of technology,
• your designs for effective assignments and successful assessment
• other teaching and learning practices or initiatives
For more details, see: www.smu.ca/caid/events
Welcome Dr. Jane Magrath,
CAID Educational Development Associate
We are pleased to announce that
Dr. Jane Magrath joins CAID as the
Educational Development Associate
responsible for working with teaching
and technology. Jane comes to us with
16 years teaching experience in the
Department of English at UPEI. In
the last few years, she has developed
innovative pedagogical practices that
incorporate various technologies and
social media into her teaching. She
has been a member of the campus-wide
e-learning committee, and she is a
facilitator with UPEI’s internationally-
recognized Faculty Development Summer Institute (FDSI).
Jane joins us on a part time contract to support the faculties’ teaching
technology initiatives. She can be found in Burke 114—her usual hours are
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Wednesday mornings. She can also be reached by email
at jane.magrath@smu.ca, phone 902-496-8242.
In Their Own Voice…
continued from page 3

5. Volume 25, Number 1, Fall 2014 5
After we were successful in
receiving funds from the ISS
INNOVATIONfund , the Service
Centre worked with ITSS to create our
new Ask-A-SMUdent microsite.
The microsite offers potential and
current students a new service by
allowing them to send a question to
a Saint Mary’s student “SMUdent”
of their choice. A map of the world
communicates the SMUdent’s home
country and their profile is available for
perusal to assist the enquirer in directing
their question to a volunteer.
I sincerely appreciate the opportunity
the ISS INNOVATIONfund offers. It has
provided us with a better awareness
of campus projects, services and
departments along with networking
opportunities with other fund
recipients. Unquestionably the fund
has illustrated how a little goes a
long way!
After submitting the question online,
it is received by our new SMUdent email.
The Service Centre’s student employee
manages this email and forwards the
question to a SMUdent who answers
and returns it. Edits are done in the
Service Centre to ensure accuracy and
legibility, after which the enquirer is
sent a response via email and a copy of
the question and answer is posted to the
microsite. Our site is sustainable with the
current resources in the Service Centre,
in addition to our student employee.
The site has gained popularity since
its launch in May 2014. Questions
were received beginning in July, after
we communicated our existence to the
University Community. We received
45 questions in that month alone and
continue to receive positive feedback
from students and staff. At the end of
July, the site contained approximately
160 questions. Categories, along with
dynamic tags that grow as the number
of questions increases, help students
find information and help as a search
function.
Our SMUdents are volunteers
who are often involved in the SMU
community in other ways and, therefore,
possess a good knowledge base to answer
questions. They are required to sign an
agreement with our office and meet
with us before and during their time as a
SMUdent.
The microsite is not meant to
replace expertise on campus. Therefore,
enquirers with academic or department
specific questions are guided to
Ask-A-SMUdent!
Leslie Hallett, CGA, Associate Registrar, Service Centre
AAU Teaching
Showcase
“Teaching Outside the
Box: Innovation and
its Constraints”
18 October 2014,
Cape Breton University
www.cbu.ca/events/
aau-teaching-showcase
the proper contacts. Our goal is to
assist students in receiving accurate
information in the most timely and
efficient way possible, but answers come
from a student’s perspective.
I sincerely appreciate the opportunity
the ISS INNOVATIONfund provides.
It has provided us with a better
awareness of campus projects, services
and departments along with networking
opportunities with other fund recipients.
Unquestionably the fund has illustrated
how a little goes a long way!

6. 6 T&L at Saint Mary’s
Contemplation as “another way of
knowing” has been recognized across
time, cultures and disciplines as essential
to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.
The Contemplative Studies Project is
designed to respond to the growing
interest and pent-up demand of both
Canadian and international students
in contemplative practices. It aims to
expand upon existing courses by adding
extra-curricular activities that offer a
common experience aimed to connect
curriculum with real life.
Contemplation fosters additional
ways of knowing that complement
the rational methods of a traditional
liberal arts education. As Tobin Hart
states, “Inviting the contemplative
simply includes the natural human
capacity for knowing through silence,
looking inward, pondering deeply,
beholding, witnessing the contents of
our consciousness… These approaches
cultivate an inner technology of
knowing.”1
Contemplative pedagogy methods are
designed to quiet and shift the habitual
chatter of the mind to cultivate a capacity
for deepened awareness, concentration,
and insight. It addresses a multitude
of issues, in particular—the increased
integration of international students into
the university environment in part by
expanding the limits of the traditional
classroom to inspire global learning.
The project aids learners and teachers
by providing them with the tools to
encourage wellness of mind by learning
mindfulness, awareness and integrative
methods. Contemplative practices are
recommended as ways to deal with stress
common to the intercultural experience.
They help to lower levels of anxiety, build
self-confidence and offer a rare (these
days) opportunity to stop, to pause and
to contemplate.
There were a number of events held
as part of the Contemplative Studies
Project, including: Chanoyu at Grand
Parade; JAPANESQUE—Japanese
Culture Festival at Saint Mary’s
Pause to Contemplate: Contemplative Studies Project
Dr. Alexandre Avdulov, Department of Modern Languages and Classics
October 3–4, 2014, Saint Mary’s University
www.smu.ca/academics/writing-centre-awell-conference.html
University; Atlantic Canada Japanese
Language Speech Contest at Saint
Mary’s University; and presentations
and workshops on Japanese Calligraphy,
Origami, Ikebana, Chanoyu, Kyudo
Archery, Iaedo, and Bugaku dance were
organized both in a classroom and out
of classroom setting. Contemplative
classroom method was also successfully
used to teach Japanese Aesthetics course
(ASNT 3849) in a traditional Japanese
setting on the tatami mats offering the
benefits of multi sensorial learning.
Half of the students enrolled in the
class were Canadians and the other half
were international students. This project
brought together teachers and students
from the Faculties of Arts, Business and
Science, as well as members of the local
community.
Students taking part in the project
particularly appreciated the opportunity
to participate, to have hands-on learning
opportunities, to be able to foster “the
ability to observe details carefully” and
to learn by experience as they “gradually
learned how to engage all senses.”
According to some student participants:
“I felt like I was actually taking
something out of the course for me, not
just my degree.”
“I feel like I’ve incorporated new
aspects/ideals into my life that’ll remain
with me forever.”
“The idea of truly seeing each moment
and not wasting time thinking of what
is to come was very useful for my life… It
showed me that there is more to things
that one can see on the surface… It is an
amazing experience, and one that should
be taken advantage of.”
While such contemplative practices
are directed inward, they also inspire
curiosity and expand inter-cultural
understanding. They help to develop a
more compassionate view of the behavior
and values of others, especially of those
who are unlike us. They facilitate
acceptance of and compassion towards
the other. In turn, awareness of the other
and of the world also cultivates insight
and inward exploration.
Students taking part in the project
particularly appreciated the opportu-
nity to participate, to have hands-on
learning opportunities, to be able to
foster ‘the ability to observe details
carefully’ and to learn by experience
as they ‘gradually learned how to
engage all senses.’
In this project contemplative forms
of inquiry are not employed as religious
practices but as pedagogical techniques
for learning through refined attention
or mindfulness. Research confirms that
these contemplative forms of inquiry
can offset the constant distractions of
our multi-tasking, multi-media cultural
environment. Thus, creative teaching
methods that integrate the ancient
practice of contemplation innovatively
meet the particular needs of today’s
students and teachers.
References:
1
Tobin Hart, “Opening the Contemplative
Mind in the Classroom,” Journal of
Transformative Education, Vol. 2 No. 1,
(January 2004).

7. Volume 25, Number 1, Fall 2014 7
34th Annual Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education (STLHE) Conference
“Achieving Harmony: Tuning into Practice” 16-19 June 2015, hosted by University
of British Columbia’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology and Simon Fraser
University’s Teaching and Learning Centre. STLHE 2015 will be held at the Westin
Bayshore in downtown Vancouver.
http://ctlt.ubc.ca/2013/11/28/save-the-date-stlhe-2015/
“So, what did you say you teach at Saint
Mary’s?” “Love,” I say, waiting for the
inevitable eyebrow raise, “and Death.”
In my experience, one of two things
will happen now—the joke (“I’ll bet the
labs are really, um, interesting!”) or the
silence that usually indicates mounting
incredulity or excitement. It’s mostly the
latter (“That must be such fun!” or “I
wish I could take those classes!”). Love
and Death are rich and challenging
courses to teach and they bring me into
contact with a wide variety of Saint
Mary’s students from across the myriad
disciplines. But like any course of this
type, there are pedagogical challenges
that can take a lot of the joy out of both
teaching and learning. My teaching
philosophy embraces the concept that
learning should be fun and engaging,
so the loss of joy is an affront to the
process. Since assessment can be one of
the more daunting aspect of a course, I
have been experimenting with different
approaches and techniques with the aim
towards making the learning and the
evaluating more engaging. In addition,
I hoped to demonstrate how courses
outside one’s major encourage knowledge
and skills that are transferrable in
meaningful ways. While researching
and brainstorming some options, I
encountered poster presentations being
used in a seminar course in Religious
Studies and a spark of an idea began
to form. It solidified later during
a discussion with a social scientist
colleague, with whom I was discussing
recent conferences. At my mention
of one in particular, she looked at me
in horror—“I NEVER attend those
conferences,” She leaned forward and
whispered, lest other ears be offended
by the disgusting revelation, “I hear
they actually READ their papers. Out
loud!” She went on to describe the poster
sessions that were the norm in her own
field. I knew posters were used in the
sciences, of course, anyone who has been
to a science fair has some familiarity
with them…but a “Death Fair”? “Well,
why not?” I thought, “It could be fun!
Let the research begin!”
Although it seems intuitively
obvious that the analysis and
synthesis in scientific research can be
represented visually, scholars in the
Arts and Humanities often conceive
of their own disciplines as being less
amenable to such representation. But
analysis and synthesis, which are what
poster projects highlight best, are an
important part of Arts and Humanities
research. Additionally, there are sound
pedagogical reasons for incorporating
poster presentations as one tool of
evaluation in the Arts and Humanities.1,2
Cain and Jarvis note that effective
posters present key arguments, evidence,
themes, and/or conclusions distilled
from a greater body of research that a
student or group has done on a subject
or topic.3
The acts of prioritizing and
distilling have the potential to encourage
clearer thinking and tighter arguments.
Some researchers also argue that the
learning achieved in posters can be akin
to that achieved in a research essay.4
Analytical and research skills
aside, poster presentations also
allow the showcasing of a variety of
skills—oral and visual presentation,
for example—which Gipps links to
an overall impression of evaluative
fairness, and, which in my experience,
also enhances student engagement and
depth of comprehension.5
As well, poster
presentations take less time to assess and
have been shown to reduce the risk of
plagiarism.
1. With all this in mind, I initiated
“Death” and “Love” Fairs into the
course curriculums. I chose to use the
poster as the culmination of a process
in which I was able to determine
(among other things) the student’s
growing abilities to discriminate
between good and bad sources, find
those sources, and analyze the utility
of those sources for their particular
project. The poster project, worth 50
% of the final mark, divided into the
following categories:
1. Process Journal (marked
individually): Private weekly journal
reporting on the process of one’s
individual research as well as the
group activities/decisions. I also used
these to determine how the groups
were functioning.
2. Proposal (marked as a group): What
approach the group chooses to take in
their research. This is not necessarily
set in stone, as I expect research to
Staging a Death Fair
Dr. Mary Hale, Department of Religious Studies
continued on back page

8. Produced by the Centre for Academic and Instructional Development
We welcome your comments and suggestions on this and future issues
of Teaching & Learning.
Tel: 420.5088
Email: caid@smu.ca
Please visit our offices, Atrium suites 106 and 107
or online at www.smu.ca/administration/caid
The Centre for Academic
Technologies (CAT) is here
to help! If you would like to:
• Learn new computer skills • Use the equipment available in the CAT
• Learn more about multimedia • Obtain SMUport and Blackboard
hardware and software training and support
• Enhance your basic skills • Discuss your training and support needs
Please contact the CAT or drop to in to AT 107 for further information.
www.smu.ca/cat
take place after the fact—my main
concern was that they had met as a
group and determined a direction
to start moving. This also helps me
to ascertain who is doing what and
precludes a group from loading the
bulk of the research onto one or two
people while one person becomes
the “project manager” without any
research responsibilities. Even so, I
had one group last semester where
the men attempted to download
all the responsibility for writing,
compiling the poster and integrating
the research onto the lone woman in
the group. This pipe dream did not
last long.
3. Annotated Bibliography (marked
individually): Four sources, three
academic and one non-academic.
4. Storyboard (marked as a group): A
great assignment for incorporating
visual learners, storyboards are done
in-class and I have found them to
be invaluable in terms of facilitating
group communication
5. Presentation (marked by the
instructor, TA, and class)
The results? The students enjoyed
making presentations in a less formal
and more interactive format and many
commented on how surprised they were
that they learned so much—not only
about their own topic, but about the
topics presented by the other groups. I
enjoyed the challenge of teaching new
content and skills to complement the
process and found the evaluation and
assessment component of the course to
be less taxing and, I believe, in the end
much more reflective of each student’s
overall achievement in the course than
reliance on a standard research paper. All
in all it has been a successful experiment,
and one that I intend to continue to
refine as a process for these courses.
References:
1
See http://rels.ucalgary.ca/crc/images/
content/SPECIFICATIONS_for_
POSTER_Session_May10.pdf for an
example of poster guidelines for a session
at the Religious Literacy, Diversity, and
Transformation Week University of
Calgary, sponsored by the Department
of Religious Studies and http://www.
queensu.ca/religion/rels/undergrad/
courses/rels401/RELS401Fall2013.pdf
for an example of use in a seminar course
by Dr. Pamela Dickey Young at Queen’s
University. (both accessed 1/8/14).
2
Jarvis, Louise and Joe, “Diversifying
Assessment 2: Posters and Oral
Presentations in Undergraduate History
of Science.” PRS-LTSN Journal, Vol. 2,
No. 2, Winter 2003.
3
Ibid.
4
Brown, Sally and Peter Knight. Assessing
Learners in Higher Education (London:
Kogan Paage, 1994).161.
5
Gipps, Caroline. A Fair Test? Assessment,
Achievement and Equity (Milton Keynes:
Open University Press, 1994). 308.
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Staging a Death Fair… continued from page 7